Mail App Opens Randomly Mojave 10.14.5

Thank you so much, I think this is the right solution. I also noticed that every time when the Mail app popped out, it tried to reconnect my gmail accounts. So I think the reason is the Mail app does not support 2-step authentication well. After I switched to the App password, the randomly open issue never happened again to me.

No, google app password is used for some applications which do not support 2-step authentication. So I think you have to have already set up the 2-step authentication for your google account, then you can generate the app password. Another way I think may also work is turn off your 2-step authentication, and add your gmail normally using the mail portal but not the google mail portal. However, I still highly recommend to keep the 2-step authentication on, it is good for cyber security.

Emm...given your DP, I think the root reason is the dedicated gmail portal is buggy. Maybe it is designed with the 2-step authentication function in mind so no matter the gmail account is using 2-step authentication or not, it will be affected by the bug. If you don't want to turn on the 2-step authentication, I think directly adding your gmail using the mail portal but not the dedicated gmail portal can solve the problem.

Hm, I tried adding it using the mail portal but it didn't work (said it couldn't confirm my username or password) and I thought it's because I don't have this application password enabled, which is due to the lack of 2-step authentication.

I KNOW THE ANSWER. I was plagued for many months with this problem and tried everything I could think of. Whenever I watched a video full screen the Mail program, sooner or later, would pop up demanding half the screen. It was infuriating. Then on another site I read a suggestion, have followed it, and can say that it works. When you are done with Apple Mail and want to put it away, DO NOT CLICK THE RED X (the leftmost dot). Instead, CLICK THE YELLOW MINUS SIGN (the middle dot) to minimize it Then the app thinks, okay, I am still on but I am minimized, and it stays off the screen. Apparently if you click the red X the app thinks, I am closed -- but I may have to open, and it will open apparently at random. But if its minimized it won't intrude on the screen unless you tell it to. I watched a whole movie full screen without the Mail app opening.

You tell it what folders to create and where. I now am able to have all my folders in one place online and no longer have any risk of losing them on a local drive. Apple mail can do that too of course via "on my Mac" but AM's method is pretty elegant. I am not sure if it was 100% apparent you can do that, but you can even go into gmail and create the folders and have them show up on AM. Since I am managing 20 or more client admin accounts this works amazingly well for me - I could never do this with Apple Mail. As I originally said though - not for everyone - Apple Mail is pretty solid on its own if it were not for this irritating screen popping nightmare I'd never have changed. Hopefully they fix it in Catalina.

Hey everyone. I think I found a fix or at least it's working for me.

I have only two email accounts on my computer - an exchange server for work and a gmail for my personal email. Mail was popping up randomly and it was becoming super annoying. Once, it popped up during a presentation. I was less than thrilled.

My solution:

Delete your Gmail account from your Internet Accounts in System Preferences. I don't use my Google Calendar too much so I wasn't worried about losing it from the Calendar app so this might be a bummer for those who rely on their Google Calendar if they are using it in the Calendar app. You might be able to add your Google Calendar separately, but I've tried a couple of things setting it up as a CalDAV account but I haven't had much luck yet.

So I added my Gmail in the options where it asks to "Add Other Account..." and chose Mail Account. When I went to sign in, I was getting an error that my user name and password were incorrect. That's where I found somewhere online that I need to go to https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps and turn this on. Once I did that, I was able to sign in through mail with my Gmail username and password and all my mail was instantly back.

Haven't had Mail popup since.

Hope that helps.

Update: I was able to add my calendar separately using a CalDAV account only, not using the Google Account. It took a few tries - must have typed something in wrong.

I followed the information on this page (it's a little old) but it seems to work perfectly.

Everything is syncing as it should!

I would imagine that some Apple employees, if not all, use Apple Mail but probably don't use Gmail which is seemingly been the source for this trouble, at least from what I'm reading from others on the web. In all the discussions I've looked through for the past 5-7 years at least, I've never seen a post from someone claiming to be an Apple employee so don't get your hopes up.

This sounds like a very robust and savvy solution. I use a simpler one that seems to work for me: when I am done using the Apple mail app, I get it off the screen not by clicking the x but by clicking the minimize button — the yellow middle box of the three in the upper left of the window. After I’ve done that the app does not open randomly while I’m doing other things. This works.

I see what you mean but I'm not a minimizer by habit. I either close the window (usually for Mail and iTunes) or hide it (Safari - so I don't close and lose all of my tabs). I guess I like a clean Dock. I did forget that there is an option to minimize the application to the Dock icon rather than on the side of the Dock. Never really thought of turning that on until now. Don't know if that's something I would like or not. I can see how keeping Mail minimized would stop it from popping up.

If you're already hiding Safari just do the same for Mail. Command-H keeps mail out of your dock and prevents it from popping up. Regardless, these are work arounds not solutions. Apple needs to address this issue.

I agree — vehemently — with the point that Apple should provide a real fix. I am just talking here about how to get by till they do. I have to say also that the Mail app itself, while serviceable, is also geeky and unlovely. It’s uncharacteristic of Apple. I hope that they’re in the process of making it over both to solve such issues as this one and to make it more attractive. I keep reading that e-mail is out of fashion and unhip. I continue to think to the contrary that it is among the most useful and revolutionary gifts of the internet.

No, Dan, I'm with you. I think email is a great thing but I honestly don't love it. I would rather use something like Microsoft Teams or Slak because I like that style of communication but I know that email isn't going anywhere. I would like to see Apple add some functionality into Mail and give it a makeover. I have no idea what to expect from Mail in Catalina because I don't bother with public beta testing but even something as simple as to delay a message and send it later would be a big thing for me.

This is so ghetto. All these “I think I fixed it” jury rigs, for a major, long term bug in a core app such as Mail. Sad. I switched over from Windows and Android in 2014 because I wanted things to “just work,” as Jobs put it. More and more, I feel Apple is ambivalent to that mantra.